NC State falls to Wake Forest

NC State drops its series with Wake Forest and will look to avert a sweep on Saturday.

RALEIGH – NC State baseball (33-19, 14-14 ACC) dropped its Friday night contest with Wake Forest (38-16-1, 14-14-1 ACC) at Doak Field at Dail Park, 6-2.

With the result, the Demon Deacons clinched the series as they once again scored first and managed to never lose their lead.

Wake struck early, taking a 2-0 lead in the first inning on as many hits. Tommy Hawke led off the game with a double down the right field line, and then after Pierce Bennett drew a walk a passed ball put the runners in scoring position. Brendan Tinsman drove in the first run on an RBI groundout and then Nick Kurtz doubled the lead with his RBI single to center field.

In the third Tinsman tallied his second RBI of the night when he hit a solo shot to left center, extending Wake’s lead to 3-0.

The Pack got on the board in the fourth when Tommy White scored from third on a wild pitch after leading off the side with an infield single, making the score 3-1.

Starting pitcher Matt Willadsen tossed seven strong innings, surrendering three earned runs on four hits and fanning nine batters. It marked the fourth consecutive outing that he’s gone at least seven innings on the mound.

In the eighth the Demon Deacons took a 6-1 lead when Kurtz belted a three-run homer over the right field wall after base hits from Michael Turconi and Tinsman put runners on for him. The Pack answered in the bottom frame with a run when J.T. Jarrett drove in LuJames Groover III from third with a bases-loaded sac fly to the left field wall, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit.

Josh Hood led the offense with a 2-for-3 outing, while three other players tallied a hit in the contest. Additionally, John Miralia retired the final six batters of the contest and fanned two batters.

NC State will close out its regular season slate Saturday in its series finale with Wake Forest. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. at Doak Field at Dail Park, as the game will have a TV broadcast on ACCNX and a radio broadcast on WKNC 88.1 and the Varsity Network App.

The program will honor its senior class of Devonte Brown, David Harrison, J.T. Jarrett, Matt Oldham and Canaan Silver prior to the start of the game.